Responsible Leadership For Sustainability In Uncertain Times

This book contains compilation of emerging discourses on responsible leadership for sustainability in uncertain times. Uncertainty is looming large at global level due to COVID, climatic disruptions and persisting social discriminations, especially since the pandemic, which have disrupted economies at both local and global levels. Technology was a boon to mitigate hardships emerging from such disruptions. The book documents the leadership roles, welfare issues, best practices and innovations that help organizations to sustain in a VUCA world. Economic, social and environmental concerns and their mitigation as documented in this book will be relevant for future planning and execution for sustainable existence. A blend of research by practitioners and academicians, capturing organizational experiences through case studies makes it attractive for a wide range of readership. Business leaders will find this book extremely helpful to understand the nuances and insights for responsible leadership and innovative strategies for stakeholder management and engagement for sustained businesses. Practitioners would get insights into responsible leadership for improving existing sustainable practices and speed up the transition which is necessitated due to disruptions. Prospective entrepreneurs may find that book helpful for creating responsible organizations which are sustainable due to responsible management of resources, employees and environment. Students and researchers can learn from the cases and documentation on responsible leadership, social and environmental concerns and sustainability in this book.

This book offers up-to-date insights into the theory and practice of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and sustainability management. Gathering contributions by a team of international scholars, it shares perspectives from a variety of academic disciplines, including management and tourism as well as accounting, higher education research and supply chain management. Guided by the credo of achieving 'Responsible Business for Uncertain Times and a Sustainable Future,' the authors present their latest reflections on, and possible solutions for, sustainable and responsible business practices. All of the contributions presented here are critical, evidence-based and solution-oriented, making the book both practical and insightful reading for academics and practitioners alike.

With a range of well-respected voices from across the business, political, third sector and research spectrum, this important book provides an accessible insight into responsible leadership. It represents the most comprehensive and informed work on responsible leadership linked to the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) produced to date. This carefully edited volume, based on a collaborative partnership between the Institute for Responsible Leadership (IRL) and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), contains twenty chapters in seven parts which address the relationship between responsible leadership and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. These original and accessible contributions discuss progress in a variety of areas relevant to the goals, including climate change and biodiversity, global health, cybercrime, human trafficking, corporate social responsibility, gender, education and social cohesion. The world-leading expert contributors are drawn from a wide range of societies and continents and cover key aspects of responsible leadership in a lively and impactful fashion. This book is for leaders at every level in the public, private and third sectors, students concerned with responsible leadership, academics and researchers studying leadership in different disciplinary fields, and all those committed to sustainable development and progressing the UN SDGs.

As CEOs and business leaders navigate a world of complex global challenges, sustainability is no longer optional but a business imperative. In this book, two sustainability leaders with decades of experience – Henrik Henriksson, CEO of Scania and Elaine Weidman Grunewald, Co-founder of the AI Sustainability Center, and former Chief Sustainability & Public Affairs Officer at Ericsson – offer a simple but powerful three-step model for leading an organization on a sustainability transformation journey that aims at big, audacious, world-changing goals. Honest about the dilemmas but bullish on the opportunities, the authors advise leaders on how to accelerate sustainability in their organizations told through a Swedish lens, where the country’s values and culture permeate the boardroom and the C-suite, bringing a unique clarity and conviction to leading with integrity. In practical insights gleaned from the authors’ own experience, the book takes leaders through the three phases of sustainability leadership: from establishing a solid foundation rooted in purpose, culture, values, principles and consistent, credible leadership, to integrating sustainability into the core business, and then to executing a vision that not only shifts the direction of the company but can change an entire industry, and even the world. Throughout the book, more than 25 interviews with other leading CEOs of Swedish companies as well as successful start-ups, investors, economists, and other experts illuminate the path to sustainability leadership from different perspectives. These are complemented by case studies describing how companies got it right – or turned themselves around after getting it very, very wrong. With this hands-on insiders’ guide, CEOs and C-suite leaders can take sustainability to the next level. This is the encouragement and inspiration business leaders need to move past incremental improvement at a time when exponential, world-changing action is more urgent than ever.

Written by three leading thinkers in the field of sustainability, 'All In' defines the essential attributes of high-impact corporate sustainability leadership and describes how companies can combine and apply those characteristics for future success. All In draws on research involving thousands of experts globally as collected via the GlobeScan-SustainAbility Leaders Survey over two decades. The book also reveals insights from dozens of interviews with Chairs, CEOs and Chief Sustainability Officers of pioneering companies, including 3M, BASF, BP, DuPont, Google, GE, Huawei, IKEA, Interface, Marks Spencer, Natura, Nestle acute;, Nike, Novo Nordisk, Patagonia, Shell, Tata, Toyota, Unilever and Walmart, explaining how they have gained recognition, created value and boosted resiliency based on their sustainability leadership. All In also outlines what the private sector must do to lift sustainability performance, protect business's license to operate and help deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. This unique book, rich with quantitative and qualitative insights, offers current and aspiring business leaders a succinct overview of the most important developments and trends in corporate sustainability and responsible leadership. 'All In' will also appeal to others interested in why sustainability has become a critical mainstream business issue. With a foreword by Dan Hendrix, Chairman, Interface, and afterword by Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever.

This book is the first to combine the much talked about topics of leadership and sustainability, and provides readers with a comprehensive overview and pragmatic approach to leading sustainable organizations. Chapters include discussions, case examples, steps, and useful tools centred on the components of the Leading the Sustainable Organization model. This model provides managers with a pragmatic, end-to-end framework for creating (in the case of new entities) or shifting (in the case of existing firms) their organizations’ workforces to a sustainability focus. Leading the Sustainable Organization is the perfect tool for executives and managers in small, medium, and large companies, and in all industries, to assist with the difficult and confusing topic of leading sustainability efforts. This book will be of great interest to students and academics who want to learn more about corporate sustainability.

This book looks into “responsible leadership” as leader’s proactive actions towards attainment of sustainable development goals and overall wellbeing of organization and society. The book covers both theoretical and practical approaches towards responsible leadership in the first module. The second module consists of chapters linking responsible leadership with various aspects of sustainable business practices such as sustainable supply chain management, green marketing, green HRM, green finance and sustainable education through digitization. The third module covers challenges to responsible leadership in various sectors such as education, agriculture, services, renewable energy and urban and rural development under a dynamic business environment. The fourth section discusses leadership roles in strategizing and implementing sustainable practices within the organization. Finally the concluding module contains critical reviews and interpretations of the perspectives on harnessing powerof HR transformation for long term sustainability and well-being.

How to lead efficiently in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world? Leadership has never been as difficult as it is today. And it has never been as crucial. In this VUCA world people ask leaders to provide certainty. They cannot. In the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world certainty comes from character. Leaders can base their leadership on empathy, fairness, kindness and reciprocity. These basic human elements are under pressure. This book provides both emerging and established leaders with the ingredients they need to develop a sustainable leadership style. EXCERPT A newly appointed CEO wrote that she wants to find a balance between her own values and what is expected from her. I hope for her that both are not too far apart. The board of the company chose her to do the job because of who she is, not because of who she is not. And here is the main challenge for those who are in a leadership role. How can you be a leader and still remain yourself? Something in leadership or in its context seems to urge people to change and become someone else. But leaders are not actors. If I can give only one advice: do not change who you are. You can be (come more of) yourself and grow as a person. But the moment you try and change who you are, you lose the only thing that is sustainable and dear to you: your character. This book is about sustainable leadership based on character. ABOUT THE AUTHOR David Ducheyne wrote this book as a source of inspiration for leaders who are looking for ways to maintain their leadership in VUCA times. It’s also a documented intention to try and do better.